"Gray" Property. Officials Caught on Bribes and the Seizures

In 2013, a law entered in force in Russia that controls potential corrupt officials. Its names is Federal Law No. 230-FZ: “On Control over the Correspondence of Expenditures of Persons Holding Public Positions and Other Persons to Their Incomes".

Its purpose is to seize property of officials which was acquired illegally. The mechanism provided by the law is quite simple. If a civil servant purchases property in excess of his income for the past three years and does not tell about the origin of money, the property goes to the state revenue. This prompts officials to register the proceeds “on the side”. Otherwise, they may lose both their position and the property.

Active enforcement of the law began in 2015. Moreover, the property is not seized in the framework of a criminal case, namely after an audit by the Prosecutor's Office. Russiangate recalls cases when officials, who have “forgotten” to declare their incomes, have been deprived of cars and real estate.

Nissan Qashqai

Employee of the Administration of the Nadezhdinsky Municipal District of Primorsky Krai Elvira Karpenko lost her car. A Nissan Qashqai worth 863 thousand rubles was given to the state. The official could not prove that she had bought it with her salary.

Moscow apartments

Vasiliy Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Urban Committee on Road Facilities, Improvement and Transportation of the City Hall of Ulyanovsk, lost not only his house, but also the work. His wife bought two apartments in Moscow worth more than 20 million rubles. Kuznetsov and his wife could not earn so much for three whole years.

Wellness complex and car wash

Leading engineer of the amenity department of the Administration of the city of Tuymazy in Bashkortostan gave the state a recreation complex, car wash, two land plots and a Mazda CX-5. The cost of this property – 2.8 million rubles – exceeds the income of his family. During the prosecutor's check, the official tried to re-register the property on his relatives.

Lexus RX 350

The governor of the Sverdlovsk Region in 2015 asked the Prosecutor's Office to look at the car used by the husband of the employee of the finance committee of the Balakovo Administration traveled. It was a Lexus RX 350 worth 2.6 million rubles, bought in 2014.

The fact is that the official did not report on the purchase and the price of the car. The spouses could not explain where they got the money to buy it. The Balakovo District Court seized the car.

Transformer building

A deputy of the Oryol Regional Council of People's Deputies with an official annual income of 5.4 million rubles bought real estate for 28 million rubles. He turned out to be bad at math, so the court seized all the “gray” property – land, administrative and production facilities, transformer substation, household building and garages.

If I can’t have it, no one will

The husband of a bailiff of the Russian FSSP Directorate bought a house in Novorossiysk for 6.5 million rubles. It is not specified when exactly the family bought the house. But for the past three years, they managed to earn only 967 thousand rubles. The spouses could not tell where they got another 5.5 million rubles from.

The court decided to seize the house in favor of the state. However, during the trial, the couple partially damaged the house, and its value dropped to 3.2 million rubles. Despite this, the house still had to be given away.

Mercedes

An employee of the Federal Bailiff Service from St. Petersburg, Anton Fedotov, lost a Mercedes ML. The car cost 3.7 million rubles – so much, the bailiff could not possibly earn legally.

Apartment

An employee of the security department of Correctional colony No. 8 of the FSSP Directorate for the Ulyanovsk Region dreamed of living in her own apartment. She bought a flat for 3 million rubles – this amount exceeds her official income. The FSSP worker could not explain the origin of the money, so she had to give the apartment to the state.

Land plot and cottage

In 2014, the spouse of a municipal official from Pervouralsk, the Sverdlovsk Region, bought a plot of land and a cottage for 5.3 million rubles. After some time, the Prosecutor's Office examined the incomes of the spouses. It turned out that they are much lower than the cost of the house and land. The court decided to seize the cottage and land.

Toyota Land Cruiser Prado

An official of the Ministry of Justice in the Primorsky Territory decided to cheat. In reports on the acquisition of property for 2014, she indicated that she bought a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado for 110 thousand rubles. The real market value of this vehicle is 1.4 million rubles. This is three times more than the money that she earned from 2011 to 2013. The Vladivostok court turned the car into the state revenue.